Gravel Racing with a Heart Condition: My Cycling Comeback, Athletica Training, and a Setback with Ventricular Tachycardia

I headed to the Hungry Bear gravel race in Cable, WI, hopeful. Training had been going well, my legs felt strong, and the early-season races had gone off without a hitch. But just 20 minutes into the race, the familiar signs of ventricular tachycardia returned. My heart rate spiked to 204 bpm, and just like […]
From Heart Surgery to Gravel Racing: My Comeback at the Dirty South Roubaix

Two years ago, I wondered if I’d ever race a bike again. This weekend, I’m back at the starting line for the Dirty South Roubaix in southern Illinois, my first gravel race since heart surgery-and the first of the Heart and Gravel Comeback Tour. I’ll do the 100k race, which I did three years ago […]
From Heart Scare to Comeback: The Journey Behind the Heart and Gravel Tour

The summer of 2023 started off well for training and racing my bike I was holding my own in the challenging group rides with guys half my age on Saturday mornings. When I started to have some irregular heartbeats, sometimes on rides, I thought they were just spasms and ignored them. Even when I was […]
The Heart and Gravel Comeback Tour: Racing, Recovery, and Raising Hope
